The present disclosure relates to a wireless communication apparatus, a program, a wireless communication method, and a wireless communication system.
In recent years, wireless local area network (LAN) systems (e.g., IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) 802.11) have been in widespread use in order to replace wired networks, since the devices of wireless LAN systems can be used at a variety of places. For example, as described in Japanese Patent No. 4307227, a wireless LAN system that complies with the IEEE 802.11 standard is formed from a group of wireless communication apparatuses including an access point that serves as a parent node and a plurality of stations that serve as child nodes. The plurality of stations are connected to a single access point.
In addition, the Wi-Fi Alliance promotes a specification called Wi-Fi Direct. In Wi-Fi Direct, a plurality of wireless communication apparatuses detect each other (Device Discovery, Service Discovery) and perform device authentication in WPS (Wi-Fi Protected Setup). In this way, the wireless communication apparatuses establish a direct connection with each other. Furthermore, in Wi-Fi Direct, a plurality of wireless communication apparatuses determine which one will serve as a parent node (Group Owner) or a child node (Client) and, thereafter, form a communication group. Note that such a technique for wireless communication apparatuses directly communicating with each another without using an access point is described in, for example, Japanese Patent No. 4307227 and Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2005-136897.